14 Se y-Tbird Year fEDrrED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF TME UNMVERSrY OF MICHIGAN . UNDER AUTHO~rTY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS here Opinions Are Free STUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG., ANN ARBOR, MICH., PHONE NO 2-3241 Truth Will Prevail" Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in al reprints. A FACE IN THE CROWD: SGC: Its Responsibility By Ronald Wilton, Editor TODAY AND TOMORROW: Wholly New Treaty Needed with Panama DAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1964, NIGHT EDITOR: STEVEN HALLER Low Man on Totem Pole: The Student Nobody Knows THE UNIVERSITY STUDENT is low man on the totem pole. While the Uni- versity exists to educate its student pop- ulation, it knows very little about what it is like to be one of the 27,000 on campus. Discounting the statistical information about students contained in their aca- demic records, the University has only an a priori knowledge of what and who students are. Clearly, the University could improve the educational experience here if it knew what the University environment means to the students and how the students re- act to it. But the University, as an admin- istrative unit, has made no attempt to study the campus environment. OBTAINING information about students on an empirical basis is a difficult but not impossible task. The University has at its disposal the counseling divi- sion of the Bureau of Psychological Serv- ices. Right now the counseling division spends most of its time working with students who have identity problems and training psychologists in clinical tech- niques. Occasionally this unit Is called in to assist administrators and faculty mem- bers in understanding the student. This consulting facet of the counseling division should be used more than oc- casionally; it should be built into the University decision-making process. If the University had real concern for the students, it could make use of this potential consulting function before mak- ing decisions involving trimester, a resi- dential college, compulsory dormitory liv- ing, two-hour examinations or a shorten- ed examination period.j THE ENGINEERING COLLEGE, for in- stance, could make valuable use of the counseling, division. Here is a school which suffers a tremendous attrition rate either in the form of transfers or. drop- outs and undergraduate enrollment has been slipping for the past few years. Why are there so many dissatisfied en- gineers? Why are fewer students enroll- ing in the school? The engineering col- lege could call in counseling consultants to analyze just what is wrong with the program from the student's viewpoint. Theeducation school is another unit on campus which could use some drastic improvements. Students are not satisfied with course content and methods of in- struction, yet nothing is done. Perhaps instead of a five-year analysis of the school by faculty members, outside coun- selors ought to be brought in to poll stu- dent dissatisfaction. The literary college doesn't really know how its policies affect its students eith- er. The dean's office only deals with those unfortunate who met with academic dis- aster. Only the academic counselor talks with the ordinary student. THE COUNSELING DIVISION reports that over 40 per cent of the student body has no primary interests. This means means that selecting a major or a voca- tional objective is a difficult task for nearly half of the student body. The academic counselor is the only per- son in a position to recognize which stu- dents will potentially have a difficult time finding a place for themselves. Yet, these academic counselors are not trained to single out these troubled students. They are academicigns who have memorized distribution and major requirements. Sometimes they are old codgers who have been steered into counseling by their de- partments to get them out of the class- room where they could do more damage. Instead of letting professors counsel the student, the college could bring in psychologists who could actually help the student meet some of his problems. CERTAINLY THE TRIMESTER and its effects has been the biggest campus controversy this year. Ideally, the University should have ask- ed the counseling division to run prelim- inary studies of possible effects of the trimester and followed this up with a comprehensive analysis of its effects dur- ing the first actual semester under the new calendar. Then the University would have been in a better position to ease the strain next fall. But the University undertook no suchj study. If the University is going to derivei meaningful educational objectives at this time of increasing academic pressures, it must determine how fast and how far it can push its students. An a priori knowl- edge of students and the campus erviron- ment is not going to be sufficient groundsj for decision making.j -GAIL EVANS Associate City Editor SINCEa WEDNESDAY, when my column on Student Govern- ment Council appeared, people have been asking me to clarify various points of my stand. The present condition of SGC certainly warrants at least discussion-and, in my opinion, more-and so I feel the necessity to develop fur- ther some points. The foundation of my position is a firm belief in the concept of student responsibility. Eighteen- year-old non-students can leave home and administer their own lives; it seems that college stu- dents, as the elite of their age group, are as qualified to formu- late the rules and regulations un- der which they live. They are further qualified to participate in decisions concern- ing academic policy, an area in which they have an intimate con- nection and direct concern. Very few stdents leave col- lege with only a greater amount of facts to show as a result. Living away from home allows the student to develop himself as a person, to accept responsi- bility and learn from his mis- takes. Once a student leaves the Uni- versity he is expected to act as a responsible, participating citizen in society, the university experi- ence should be his training ground. A student government is one means of institutionalizing this part of the educational process. Through its activities, students can become involved in all Uni- versity problems affecting them. Student legislators, elected demo- cratically by the student body, speak for their constituents and represent their views within the decision-making structures of the University. The legislators report back to their constituents periodically and the student body acts through various communications channels to make its concerns known. The student government acts on these concerns, and through the process of learning through experience both the legislators and student body become experienced partici- pants in a democratic society. The above is all theory. I do not know of one place where it is actually practiced. The usual stumbling block is the limita- tion on potential student gov- ernment action prescribed by the University administration. Where this occurs and the stu- dent government is prevented from having any direct effect on the student body apathy results; the student government becomes a "Mickey Mouse" organization, concerning itself with such things as calendaring. Occasionally, it makes some noises in the direc- tion of acquiring real responsi- bility, but in many cases an ad- ministrative glare is enough to make it back down. This is the way that Student Government Council operates at this University. I've been follow- ing it since my freshman year and have never been under any illusions. However, I've always believed that every Council mem- ber, no matter how cowed by the administration, held the view that he is on Council to represent the student body and as such assumes the obligation of affording them a certain amount of consideration and respect. The shattering of this past be- lief resulted in my previous col- umn and my opposition to Coun- cil. Sitting at the table two weeks ago, it was my very strong impression that Council mem- bers did not care at all if the student body was provided with platform statements before the upcoming election. If the statements could be pro- vided on Council's terms, then, fine; they would be printed. If getting them in early would in- convenience the candidates and prevent them from borrowing is- sues from one another, then, too bad; the statements might not be printed. The students can still vote. Thisimpression on my part was completely subjective; no one actually' said the hell with the students." But the impression was strong enough to make me write an editorial and stop attending SGC meetings. I've been accused of being bit- ter because The Daily was pre- vented from dictating the terms of the election supplement to Council. A look at some salient facts is in order. , At present the question of whether the elections supplement gets put out is entirely in the hands of SGC. Council has said that it will gather the platforms, edit them, gather' the pictures, dummy in platforms and pictures on page layouts and send the completed product to The Daily for printing. In other words, the supplement would be prepared and paid for by SGC; this frees for regular work those Daily staff members who would have spent timetputting it together: our benefit. The abolition of the peti- hardly crimp Daily operations. This is hardly strong support for alleged Daily dictatorial attempts. Furthermore, Daily self-interest would have caused me to vote on the prevailing side. I have also been asked whether I wrote an attack on Council members as individuals or a con- demnation of SGC as an organi- zation. The intention was the lat- ter; the condemnation of indi- vidual members was a small part of the total argument. First, SGC will never be an institutionalized means for helping to prepare stu- dents to participate in society un- til it can act in areas which di- rectly affect the student. The two major areas here are the power to set student non- academic rules and regulations and the power to participate in the formation of academic policy. Council's powers will have to be expanded enormously if it is ever to fulfill the potential inherent in a student government.f A second basic requirement is to restructure Council to elimi- nate ex-officios. At present the body is not so much a legisla- tive or lobbying organ as it is a campus leaders club. Because ex-officios are the heads of the major student or- ganizations, they tend to view issues in narrow perspectives and from the context of their sup- posed infallibility due to their organizational success. A 19 mem- ber body which includes at least eight people of this type is nat- urally going to be hampered in deciding policy affecting the en- tire student body. The philosophy of the elite will prevail. People are not wanted to run for Council out of a desire to be- come part of this elite rather than an inclination to push strongly the interests of the stu- dent body. This attitude leads to student disinterest in SGC which, in turn, leads to further disre- gard by Council members of their constitutents. The result is the attitude of contempt which appeared to me be present at the meeting two weeks ago. . This elitism and contempt is also present in relations be- tween Council members them- selves. On Friday, The Daily received a letter (see today's Letters to the Editor column) signed by every Council mem- ber except me, explaining their stand on my column. I called up one member and discovered that not only had she not signed the letter, but also the letter had never. been passed around for Council members to read. When I read the letter she requested her name be removed. Since .'The Daily cannot print letters without establishing their validity, I called up some other Council members and finally got the story. At its last meeting, Council had voted unanimously to send a letter. The letter was drawn up by the executive com- mittee and then sent out with everyone's name on it but with- out first being read by everyone. Several other members I subse- quently spoke to also asked- me to remove their names.' They were quite angered by this flagrant misuse of executive committee power. Of 15 people who, could be reached, six asked their names be removed; four of the remain- ing nine are the executive com- mittee. Finally, SGC President Russell Epker decided to afix his signature only, since he was mandated by Council to write the letter. Under its present structure SGC will remain static. What is need- - ed is a moratorium on Gouncil meetings, and the creation of a. student committee, aided by the University Senate's Student Re- lations Committee, to analyze SGC's failure and draw up a structure for a new student gov- ernment: one that is dedicated to the educational and democratic principles student governments are supposed to advance. By WALTER LIPPMANN IT IS REASONABLY certain that there will continue to be trouble in Panama as long as the present canal is the only canal connecting the two oceans. It may be, of course, that some kind of ingeni- ous and sophistical face-saving ac- commodation will be worked out and that it will keep the peace until after the Panamanian elec- tion in May and our own in No- vember. But the hard fact is that the present canal is complicated, vulnerable and vitally important. The canal depends on a series of locks which are very vulnerable to sabotage. One ship with a big bomb in it could put the canal out of business for a long time. The canal is an intricate piece of en- gineering which cannot be operat- ed and guarded by the Panaman- ians themselves, because they do not have the engineers and the skilled technicians or the soldiers. Because the canal requires the presence of foreigners to operate it and guard it, there is, inevitab- ly, a foreign colony on the terri- tory of Panama. Because there is a foreign colony, there has to be a treaty defining the rights and powers of the foreign government which the colonists serve. WE ARE now at odds with the government of Panama over-the treaty of 1903. The apparent issue is whether we will "negotiate" a revision of that treaty or whether we will "discuss" a revision. We are standing fast against the pro- posal to "negotiate" even though the Panamanians say that this would not .commit us' to accept any specific change in the treaty. I think we are right on this point, because after a negotiation, if we were faced with a proposal that we believed would endanger the security of the canal, we would be just where we are today. There is, however, an alternative for us, which would be to make a proposal for a wholly new treaty, based on the Principle that our rights in the Canal Zone, which are now "in perpetuity," shall ex- pire X years after the necessary agreements have been reached among the American republics for a new sea-level canal. THERE ARE five possible sites for such a canal, one in Mexico, one in Nicaragua, one in Colombia and two in Panama itself. A sea- level canal would be radically dif- ferent from the present canal. Though it would require a large United States part in financing and building it, especially if it is to be made by nuclear excavation, the continuing presence of a large body of American technicians and workmen and soldiers would not be necessary to operate the canal or to protect it. The sea-level canal would have no locks that could be sabotaged, and it would need no colony of foreigners to keep the machinery in good repair. It is, moreover, generally ack- nowledged that the present canal, which is already too small for big naval and, merchant ships, will in 10 years or so be too small for the traffic of this hemisphere and of the world. Another canal will have to be built in any event, and there is no reason, it seems to me. why we should not at the same time cut to the root of our quar- rel with the Panamanians and provide a public facility of great importance to ourselves and our neighbors. Assuming that it might take 15 years to build a new sea-level canal, we could offer the Repub- lic of Panama termination of our quasi-sovereignty in the Canal Zone 15 years from the ratifica- tion of the necessary agreements to authorize and finance the new canal. Since there would be no practical need to make the new canal a United States enterprise, we could in good conscience pro- pose that the canal be operated under an authority representing the American republics. (c), 1964, The Washington Post Co. CAMPUS: Romantic 'Hei hts' WUTHERING HEIGHTS"' is one of the very few books which, as a classical staple, has also achieved the same distinction as a movie. It is an old movie and adheres faithfully to the book. On the bleak English moors, a man be- set by vindictiveness falls in love with the sister of the man he is slowly destroying. And the two lovers eventually kill> themselves;' she, because of her inability to preserve her sep- arate identity in the face of Heathcliffe's passion and he, be- cause of his failure to possess her completely. The fili s prime virtue to some is its chif failured to others. It i& undeniably, unavoidingly, un- ashamedly romantic. The music and direction both emphasize ro- manticism, anderealism is dis- dainfully discarded. And the petty boos and hisses last night wonderfully demon- strated how advanced and so- phisticated the culture. center of the Midwest. has become. The audience was truly 'realistic.' Its conduct was a progress report of liberal education. * * * MERLE OBERON and Law- ence Olivier give flawless per- formances. The acting is under- standably maudlin. If one con- siders that the plot is 19th cen- tury England with all its inher- ent eccentricities, then the sen- timentality does not detract from the powerful drama presented. Those who are disgusted with the standard prostitute plot of the realist film, or the drab social documentaries of our modern muckrakers, have a rare chance to see art in motion. Bronte created in Heathcliffe an indi- vidual who is not easily forgot- ten: the personification of evil which is not quite evil and the consuming death he spreads. Cathy is too weak to resist. "WUTHERING Heights" pul- verizes the 'slice of life' realism of our age." Emily Bronte wrote '"Wither ing Heights" with the implicit if unconscious premise that the job of a novelist is the creation of a story, not a journalistic compila- tion of the 'seamy side of life. When she became a creative novelist instead of a Reuters car- rier pigeon, she fulfilled tne pos- sibilities inherent in the human mind. For this achievement, she, the book' and the' film will ,,be admired afternFelini is long gone. -Michael Hyman LETTERS TO THE IEDITOR; Epker Clarifies Rules. Revised by Council UNDERSCORE: Time for U.S. To Pull Out' MUCH FUROR was raised Thursday when Fidel Castro finally cut off the outside water supply to our military base at Guantanamo Bay. Castro's stated rea- son for this action was that the United states had seized scores of Cuban fishing boats in international waters. Whether this charge is true or not, it is not the reason behind Castro's action. The reason is bitterness-a bitterness that stretches back over four years. It en- compasses United States actions blocking -off Cuba from Western trade, our abortive invasion attempt, our blockade during the missile crisis. And it also encompasses the fact that we have kept a bristling military base on Cuban soil over repeated and completely justified Cuban requests that we pull out. So what are we now doing, seeing the end result of all this bitterness? We are firing many -Cuban personnel on Guan- tanamo, an action that puts scores of men out of jobs. We are making the base com- pletely independent of Cuba, a move which deprives the Cubans of a small salve they did have for their bitterness- the money we were paying them for the water. WHAT WE SHOULD DO, of course, is pull out of the base and sell the whole works to the Cubans-at a loss if neces- sary. The main reason behind this, and one which very few Americans even real- ize, is that we have absolutely no right under international law to keep the base there. The agreement which gave us the base .e>;+ i .. - .1- e 1 . ..'",ehrs... r.nt~arvrn.f -Antyj dictator of Cuba. And we refuse to move our base, pointing to permission granted by a government which has been dead for five years. This position is both ridic- ulous and untenable. EVEN ASIDE FROM THIS, there is still every reason why we should pull out of Guantanamo. The base, of course, has absolutely no military value. It was first established, around the turn of the cen- tury, to protect our interests in the Car- ibbean. Cuba is obviously no longer one of our interests. its only possible value is as a training ground. But of course a base on United States territory would do just as well, and cost much less. . But, some will say, what of the great propaganda boost we get out of the base? Anyone who thinks that this base makes us look brave and good in the eyes of the world, or serves as an inspiring example of Western democracy to the enslaved Cubans, is sadly misinformed. What the Cubans see is a group of peo- ple living next door to them with a stand- ard of living many times theirs. These are the same people, of course, who have cut them off from the lifeblood of West- ern trade. And these people have been paying Cuban personnel who work on the base a small fraction of what they them- selves get. WHAT THE WORLD SEES is the United States maintaining a hostile military base on the ground of a feeble, isolated nation. The United States has no agree- ment with the government of this nation, To the Editor: THIS LETTER is written in compliance with the unani-s mous mandate of Student Gov- ernment Council to me as presi- dent to clarify and more fully explain the Council's position on] the legislation passed changing the petitioning regulations. SGC has been accised regularly1 of acting irresponsibly, the article by Daily Editor Ronald Wilton,1 "SGC Insults Students," last Wednesday has little if any fac- tual basis. This bitter article, we] feel, does not represent the prop-] er intent or interpretation of the legislation and its consequences. -* * * THE REMOVAL of petition re- quirements for candidates seeking election to SGC was a move on the part of Council to obtain a more workable procedure to help encourage qualified students to seek election to Council. It should be mentioned that the majority of Council members feel that it is worthwhile to give this new system a one semester trial. We think it is of interest to note that Editor Wilton began his debate at Council on this issue by stating that he had had an extremely difficult time making up his mind on this question and was aware of the merits of re- moving the petitioning require- ments. Although there is no way to predict definitely the results of Council's action, the dire conse- quences predicted bythe editor appear extreme and assume bad . faith on the part of future can- didates. IT WAS further stated that because of certain individuals' petty elitist tendencies and lack of real concern for the students, the submission datek for platform statements was set back four days thus making it impossible for The Daily to prepare and print an election supplement paid for by the Council. This action was tak- en to allow additional time for candidates to campaign and to prepare the final articulation of their views on the election issues. Our original premise that this action would not prevent the publication of a supplement has been reaffirmed by The Daily business staff. Unless the editor allows his personal interests to interfere with the activities- of the business staff, there will be an election supplement. To charge that SGC acted ir- responsibly and 'without concern for the students' interests is to misrepresent highly those actions which were taken. We are inclined to feel that a great deal of Mr. Wilton's article was based on personal bitterness who do not qualify for federal scholarships support themselves, and often wives .on $1,200-$2,0001 per year. This is one of the very low income groups in the United1 States. It does not even qualify for welfare as do non-students with the same income. How can a man who proposes, to help the poor refuse a program such as this: 1) It costs nothing to administer. 2) It is entirely free of government control. 3) It helps promote higher, education. 4) It provides relief for all self-sup- porting students and not just a select few. Why did President Johnson cause the defeat of the tax exemp- tion amendment? All liberals ought to be ashamed of this ac- tion. -Marvel John Yoder, Grad (Letters to the Editor should be typewritten, doublespaced and lim- ited to 300 words. Only signed let- ters will be printed. The Daily re- serves the right to edit or with- hold any letter.) ,X N 4 , N .,, NMI" t .15iy .; I'f. ".z"*.* r4:r.a"f "V -' I ; 4;; >,;' ;. Y _ ,, ) rY Ayi ; J